California Cookbook

Amish Friendship Bread

Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

By Cindy Dorn | Sept. 5, 2001

DEAR SOS: About six years ago, I received from a friend an Amish Friendship Bread starter, one of those batters in a sealed bag that you feed and knead for 10 days before splitting, baking and passing on. I did ...
Read more

Starter

1 (1/4-ounce) package dry yeast

2 1/2 cups warm water, divided

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon sugar

Step 1Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water in a deep glass or plastic container. Stir in the remaining warm water, flour and sugar. Beat until smooth. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Do not refrigerate.

Step 4On day 10, add the remaining 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar. Stir. The starter is ready to use. This makes 3 cups of starter. If you want, pour 1 cup of starter into two containers to give away, and save 1 cup to begin the process over again.

Step 3In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship Starter, eggs, oil and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the nuts and apples. Divide the batter evenly between the pans.

Step 4Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes.

DEAR SOS: About six years ago, I received from a friend an Amish Friendship Bread starter, one of those batters in a sealed bag that you feed and knead for 10 days before splitting, baking and passing on. I did not keep some starter for myself, and friends have been asking me for "The Bread," my version of the baked recipe. Any idea where I can get the starter recipe?

SHAWN GRIMM

La Mirada

DEAR SHAWN: Here's a friendship story: We found this recipe on the Internet from RecipeSource.com (http://www.recipesource.com). The Web site grew out of a collection of recipes begun in 1993 by Jennifer Snider, a student at UC Berkeley. When her friends found out she had collected thousands of recipes from the Internet, they helped her found the all-volunteer site, which now has 70,000 recipes. We've included the baked version.